Environmentalism relies on a nature-culture dualism and defines human beings as external to nature, hence arguing that human activities are the cause of damage to the environment, writes Multitudes editor Emmanuel Videcoq, self-proclaimed “militant in ecological politics”. This goes hand in hand with a radical critique of economic rationality, he says, according to which the possibility of a political ecology emerges. Because current environmental projects are — for various reasons — limited in impact, Videcoq calls for a second era of political ecology.
Accordingly, Multitudes’s new issue is entitled “Ecopolitics Now!”. Articles in the print issue are complemented with just as many online articles to form a range of questions around the need for a renewal of the reflection on ecology and of political practices.
In an interview, Romanian-Parisian social psychologist Serge Moscovici makes clear what is at stake: the creation of a new way of life. Moscovici spearheaded a new environmental sensibility that led him to put nature back on the political agenda.
Jorge Riechmann, in “Biomimesis: Elements for an industrial ecology” argues for a reintegration of the technosphere into the biosphere: “The study of the latter can be a source of ideas for changes that should be made in the former.” And Isabelle Stengers, Belgian philosopher of science, proclaims the beginning of a culture of non-symmetry. “Nature”, she writes, “has no innate reason to care about us; rather, we must care about her.”
Also to look out for: a dossier on the filmmaker and psychologist Fernand Deligny, “the pedagogue following the footsteps of autistic patients”; an interview with Jacques Robin and Felix Guattari about the information revolution, published for the first time; and a piece by poet, activist, and performer John Giorno, entitled “Welcoming the flowers”, including an interpretative essay by Bernard Heidsieck.